Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I am profoundly worthless...

Looking upon the crucufied Christ and images from His agony and passion makes me feel profoundly worthless and fills me with shame. How can He love us so much to endure such torments? I can tolerate so few and am disgusted by the most minor irratations from others. The effort to love those that drive my insane is so great at times that I am awed at God's love for even the most wretched sinners, of whom I am the first. It would be frivoulous of me to compare my struggles to love my enemies with Christ's suffering on Calvary. Funny, how the nearer one draws to Christ the more little and worthless they think of themselves.

13 comments:

Thinking of yourself as worthless is not the ultimate goal, dear lady. Imagine what worth with which we must be filled for God to come to us, and die for us. And to be made in God's image takes away any question of worth. If we cannot love ourselves, recognizing the walls that sin builds, we can never love God.

Yes! And in our worthless--creature self, once sanctuaries of the devil, when we choose Him, and are Baptized with the Holy Spirit--He comes to us, and we are transformed into temples of the Holy Spirit--God now lives in our souls.

It is well to know oneself as a sinner who isn't fit to undo the sandle straps, but remember also, the prayer of the Centurian, that we use at Mass: "lord I am not worty to recieve you under my roof, but only say the word..."

We are worthless, in a way, but through our worthlessness, Christ still died for us, because of his love.

And remember, Who so ever hates his life shall gain it.

Treasure the fact that you are so very aware of the Love of Christ for you, and your own unworthyness of it. Because that's the seedbed of sanctity, and you are closer than you think. And when you know you can do nothing, have done nothing, yet can look at the crucifix and see his love for you, then you are at your closest.

The Church has always taught that when we commit mortal sin we are completely severed from Christs love.This is a fact.At that moment we are indeed worthless, but..As soon as we have perfect contrition outside sacramental confession and then recieve absolution for our sin, whether perfect or imperfect contrition, within the sacrament, we are then again restored with sanctifying grace and again become friends with Christ, reunited with Him.Now we are worth something!

It is only the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in us that prevents us from being worthless.

We are still "worth many sparrows" before that indwelling. The lost sheep still has value as does the lost coin that's why He searches for it. All of his creations have value as they are from His hand. Sin corrupts and may ultimately waste that value but it is still there.

Memphis Agee,If I die with a mortal sin upon my soul, I am cast into the bowels of Gehenna.At that moment I am truly worthless.Therefore, at any given moment in our lives that we have a mortal sin on our souls, the possibility of death is quite present, and again, if we commit mortal sin we are completely severed from Gods love.Now if God does not love me, I am truly worthless.This is not my opinion but rather the infallible Magisterial Teaching of Holy Mother ChurchWhen Christ spoke of us being worth more than many sparrows, according to a commentary I read on the Latin Vulgate, He was referring to us in a state of sanctifying grace, which grave sin kills.God bless you

Surely God loves all the souls in Hell too. It is our rejection of Him that forces us into Hell not the other way around. I frankly doubt that the Holy Mother Church we share has definitively ruled specifically on the question of worth. Hell is certainly Dogma but if worth is dogmatically defined I'd like to see it spelled out rather than simply asserted. I expect that if anything is defined is that we are inherantly unworthy to receive such generosity as God provides, but this does not mean we are worthless.

I make no claim to worth - just reiterate Christs' reassurances. Can you refute that He searches for us and has already paid for our sin while we are still in grave sin or that grave sin is not reversible until death? Clearly we are worth His effort, if only as a means of of showing His great generosity and thereby glorifying Him. So great is His love that He would descend to us the lowly the unworthy - all true. However unworthy does not equal worthless, that is a leap. Viewing yourself as worthless can lead to despair and falsely diminishes one of Gods great works of creation: you.

The souls in Hell have completely rejected the Almighty and therefore have no chance, whatsoever of attaing the Beatific vision.God does not love a damned soul, for the sole reason that they have been given numerous chances for repentance, and have rejected them all.It would be illogical, not to mention against the infallible declarations of at least two Councils to state that "God loves the Damned"If that where so, there would be hope for Satan.